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Summary

In Bon Temps, everyone has something to hide. But when new threats emerge, no one can conceal the secrets of their past.

After Sookie discovers that Bill’s been kidnapped, she heads to Mississippi where she becomes entangled in a world ruled by a pack of vicious werewolves and the powerful Vampire King, Russell Edgington. There, her powers resurface and she learns that Bill may not be trusted. Eric is also drawn to the King’s domain to settle an old score; Tara dives deep into turmoil; Jason falls for a mysterious woman; Lafayette can’t avoid love or demons; Jessica sharpens her vampire skills; and Sam uncovers the truth about his birth family. It all leads up to the revelation of the series... Sookie’s true identity.

Starring

Episode guide

01 - Bad Blood

Dressed in a lavender gown and wearing her new engagement ring (even though she technically hasn't said yes), Sookie rushes out of a French restaurant, calling after Bill. But the vampire has disappeared, along with his car. In a different parking lot, outside Merlotte's, Tara weeps over Eggs's body as police and onlookers gather around her.

Jessica returns home to the Compton place, dragging a trucker named Hank who she's drained to the brink of death. She's terrified that Bill will come home and catch her, but that's not going to happen. Held hostage in the back seat of his own Bimmer, Bill has been bound in silver chains by a group of bikers. The vampire's cell phone rings, with Sookie's name appearing on the caller ID, but the lead biker, Coot, throws it out the window - and then viciously stabs Bill with a knife.

Deputy Kenya Jones arrives at the French restaurant to investigate Bill's disappearance, but she makes it pretty clear that she could care less about missing vampires, particularly this one, who seems to have simply left in a huff after his proposal was rejected. Sookie heads over to Bill's house, where Jessica is watching in horror as Hank squeezes out his last breath. She manages to hide the body in her cubby before Sookie bursts through the door. Jessica wants details about the proposal, but Sookie cuts her off, ordering her to call if Bill comes home.

At Merlotte's, Terry tries to console Andy in the aftermath of Eggs's death, explaining that he knows how it feels to take a life. Andy is touched but can't really relate - Jason is the one who actually killed Eggs, and now Andy is just trying to avoid going to jail as an accessory to murder. The bar is tense, and when Arlene tries to express her gratitude to Bud Dearborn for protecting Bon Temps, Tara erupts with rage and grief. Lafayette manages to steer Tara out the door, and Andy leaves to visit Jason. He finds the ex-jock shaken and edgy at his house. Warning Jason that their story has holes in it, Andy orders him to act normal, which for Jason means to go out and chase some tail. "Conscience off, dick on," Andy tells him.

Sookie goes to Eric for help and receives an eyeful of the Nordic vampire when she interrupts his escapades with Fangtasia's new go-go dancer Yvetta. She explains that Bill has vanished and insists they track down Bill's maker Lorena, convinced that she's involved . But Eric explains he's duty-bound as sheriff to investigate any missing vampires in his area. As Sookie leaves, it's clear that Eric's as blindsided as she is. Pam advises Eric to tell Sophie-Anne that Bill is missing - before she finds out from another source - but Eric's not yet willing to risk the queen's wrath for losing track of the one vampire who can link her to selling vampire blood.

Bill's car swerves down a country road, as the men inside drink Bill's blood, getting higher and higher. Bill warns them that he could quickly die from his wounds, but that doesn't stop them. Sneaking on a pair of gloves, the vampire manages to escape from his chains and immediately kills one of the thugs before grabbing the steering wheel and crashing the car. Bill crawls from the wreckage and staggers into the woods, sending a psychic "call" to Jessica, who feels her maker's contact but has no idea what it means.

Sookie returns home to find Lafayette comforting Tara, who's in a state of shock over Eggs's death. When Sookie hears how it happened, she immediately tells Tara how she tried to help Eggs by restoring his memories. Tara loses it, attacking Sookie and shrieking that the only man she's ever loved is dead. Lafayette takes Tara back to his house and Lettie Mae comes to take care of her daughter. After Lafayette leaves for work, Tara's mother enlists a reverend for help. His visit seems to calm Tara, and Lettie Mae feels she's saved her daughter from darkness. But when Tara goes to take a shower, she tries to overdose on pills before Lafayette returns and kicks the door in to stop her.

In a rundown motel room, Sam awakens to a knock at his door and answers it to find a shirtless Bill, asking to be invited in. Sam obliges - and wistfully agrees to take a shower with the vampire - but just as Bill leans in for a kiss, Sam hears his phone ring...and awakens from the vampire-blood-induced dream. Sitting up in the same motel room he dreamt of, Sam answers the call from a local official, who gives him the latest lead on tracking down his parents: He apparently has a brother, Tommy Mickens, who's earned a reputation for ripping people off at a local tire shop. Sam pays the business a visit, and a worker with "Tommy" stitched on his shirt insists that the Mickens kid left months ago. Sam is hardly convinced, and when he later follows Tommy home, a mailbox full of past-due bills confirms that he's located his biological family.

Hoyt calls Jessica, who has been unable to revive her dead trucker. Hoyt wants to know if she received his flowers, but Jessica has more pressing issues to deal with. Later, with Sookie's help, she figures out that Bill's "call" was guiding her toward a place, and when the two women rush to the spot, they find his overturned car and a corpse with a brand linked to something called "Operation Werewolf."

Queen Sophie-Anne brings the Magister to Fangtasia, where he tells Eric of his concern that vampires are colluding with humans to sell vampire blood. He makes it clear that the punishment for such an offense would be dire. Once Eric and Sophie are alone, she orders him to sell off his entire supply of the drug literally overnight. Pam delivers the message to Lafayette, who has no idea how he'll move so much product so fast, especially with everything that's going on with Tara. Pam is not sympathetic.

As the evening crowd at Merlotte's grows, Arlene is shocked when her sense of smell suddenly becomes unbelievably sensitive. There's only one explanation...she's pregnant again. In the barroom, Jason does his best to follow Andy's advice and act natural, so he flirts heavily with two beautiful veterinary students. He and an unwilling Hoyt bring the girls back to his house, but once things heat up, Jason can't perform. Every time he looks at the girls, he envisions bullet holes in their foreheads. He tries to explain the problem, and the girls can't get out of the house fast enough.

Bill, weakened and ravenous from being drained, visits the house of an old woman and glamours her into letting him feed. Once he's finished, he gives her a handful of cash, imprinting her memory with the idea that her son wanted her to have the money. As Bill flees into the night, howls echo around him, and when a pack of orange-eyed wolves surrounds him, ready to attack, Bill tells them: "I should warn you - I've fed."

02 - Beautifully Broken

In the Mississippi woods, Bill Compton spits out the furry ear of a werewolf into the dirt. He is surrounded by the dead bodies of several other werewolves, and as his now ear-less attacker writhes on the ground in agony, the pack leader, Coot, advances on Bill. Before the battle can continue, though, a vampire rides up on a horse. He introduces himself as Russell Edgington, the King of Mississippi, and apologizes to Bill for the rough treatment he's received. Inviting Bill onto his horse, Russell gallops off toward his mansion, where his partner Talbot makes a show of welcoming Bill as an honored guest - even though his "room" features a solid silver door and a massive vampire guard.

Sookie visits Eric at Fangtasia, all but begging for help finding Bill. When she shows Eric the Operation Werewolf brand she discovered, the vampire flashes back to WWII, where he and Godric - disguised as SS members - captured a werewolf with the same marking. He doesn't share this detail with Sookie, who returns home, upset. Entering the house, she's frightened to hear noises, but it turns out to be Jason, whose guilt-ridden conscience kept him awake until he decided to start cleaning up the mess Maryann left behind. Sookie explains how upset Tara is about Eggs and starts to blame herself for his death, but Jason - all too familiar with that feeling - assures Sookie it wasn't her fault.

In Lafayette's bathroom, Tara struggles with him as he forces her to throw up the handful of pills she's taken. He drags her out of the house and gets in the car to go to the hospital. Lettie Mae wants to come along, but Lafayette barks at her, "You've failed this girl for the last time, you hear me?" In the car, Tara begs him to not take her to the hospital; she's afraid they'll lock her up for life after hearing her story. Lafayette knows she's right, but he's furious that she'd try to kill herself and leave him alone. Part condemnation and part pep talk, he tells her that she has the strength to deal with her problems - and he has something he wants to show her.

Hoyt tries to bring a six-pack of True Blood to Jessica as a gift, but the young vampire is way too freaked out over killing Hank to talk to him. He says he understands how she must have felt when she attacked Maxine, and he forgives her...but Jessica knows he can never know how she feels.

Sam wakes up in his truck with a shotgun to his head. His brother, Tommy, has found him sleeping outside the Mickens' home and herds Sam inside the unkempt house. But when Sam explains himself to his parents, Joe Lee and Melinda, the strange family is reunited. Tommy is not thrilled to find out he has a big brother, however, and walks out. Sam follows him, trying to explain that he's not there to cause trouble. Seeming to put the conflict behind them, the men shift into dogs (Tommy chooses a pit bull) and go for a run to clear their heads. As night falls though, Tommy purposely leads Sam into the path of an oncoming truck before shifting into a bird and flying away, leaving his brother shaken up on the side of the road.

Lafayette and Tara arrive at a psychiatric hospital, and just when Tara starts to think he's betrayed her and decided to have her committed, Lafayette leads her to his mother, Ruby Jean, who he checked into the facility. She verbally abuses her nurse Jesus, and Lafayette, who after the visit points out to Tara that there's darkness in their family - but that doesn't mean they have to give in to it.

03 - It Hurts Me Too

A wolf stalks across Sookie's living room, baring its teeth as she raises a pistol and fires. Before the bullet can strike the wolf, Eric leaps into its path at vampire speed, taking the hit in his chest to preserve the beast for interrogation.

As soon as the wolf sees Eric's wound, it shifts into a man, who scrambles to get a taste of the vampire's blood. Even wounded, Eric subdues the attacker, though he soon gives into his own rage and bites savagely into the man's neck - but not before Sookie hears him think about "Jackson." They bury the werewolf in a fresh grave at the cemetery, and Sookie makes plans to go to Mississippi to search for Bill. Eric tells her a rescue mission would be suicide and asks her to try to stay out of trouble.

At Russell's mansion, Bill watches as Lorena begins to heal from the severe burns he inflicted on her. Russell, ignoring Talbot's grief over his damaged antiques, sends Lorena away so he can speak with Bill. The king informs the younger vampire that Lorena wants Sookie to die. In fact, the only way Bill can save her is by joining forces with Russell.

Tara and the mysterious vampire Franklin Mott have mind-blowing sex - as she allows him to feed on her - in a seedy motel room. Afterward, Tara leaves without giving her name, knowing that she's way too messed up to get involved with anyone, let alone a vampire. The next day, Mike Spencer calls Tara to let her know that Eggs' funeral is about to take place. When Tara arrives, the only other person attending is Sookie, who paid for the arrangements. The two women reconnect as a minister begins the ceremony.

Sam returns to his parents' house, not mentioning that his little brother Tommy just tried to get him killed on the highway, and explains that he's heading back to Bon Temps. His mother fawns over him, but he sidesteps the attention as best he can, casting Tommy a meaningful look on his way out the door. That night, Sam sees Sookie at work - and notices her engagement ring. She explains that she's leaving town for a few days to find Bill and asks him to look after Jessica, since she's all alone. Knowing he can't talk Sookie out of anything, Sam agrees.

In light of his performance at the meth bust, Jason decides he wants to become a police officer. To pass the written test for the job, he has Hoyt quiz him, but the preparation isn't going well. Hoyt is also having trouble concentrating...his mind is focused squarely on Jessica.

In a doctor's office, Arlene undergoes an ultrasound proving the suspicion that she's pregnant. Unfortunately, it also proves that the father is Rene. Later at work, Arlene tries to broach the topic with Terry, and as soon as she says she's pregnant, he's overjoyed - so much so that she can't bear to tell him the truth.

04 - 9 Crimes

Sookie patches up a wound on Alcide's shoulder that he received in the fight at Lou Pine's, doing her best to repair his ego as well by mentioning that the werewolves had been drinking vampire blood. This disgusts Alcide, who's also worried about Debbie Pelt, his ex-fiancee who's now engaged to Coot. A bit of sexual tension builds between Alcide and Sookie, but they're interrupted by Sookie's cell phone. It's Bill, and he's calling to break up with her. Alcide does his best to console her in his tough-love kind of way, but this is a deep blow to Sookie.

Tara, still under the glamour of Franklin, calls Sookie to determine her whereabouts, but Sookie is too upset to talk to her. Franklin, not pleased, bites Tara savagely. Before going to ground for the day, he ties his captive to the toilet.

After Bills hangs up with Sookie, he turns to a triumphant-looking Lorena and tells her that he'll never love her. Lorena says that she knows his feelings will change over time, but he responds by punching her full-on in the face, sending her flying into the hallway. He slams his silver door shut behind her, burning his hand in the process.

While Yvetta dances for Eric at Fangtasia, the vampire lapses into a fantasy about Sookie. He hovers outside her window, and when she invites him inside, she says she can smell the saltwater in his memories. They slip closer together, sharing a moment and then a kiss...until Yvetta snaps him from his daydream, asking, "I boring you?"

Sam bursts out of Merlotte's holding a handgun and looking for his brother Tommy. Instead, he finds Melinda camped out in his parking lot. She tells her son that Tommy sometimes acts out whenever the family "falls on hard times."

Sookie wakes up to breakfast with Alcide, who can't believe that she still wants to find Bill. He advises her to move on, but she's not taking any pointers from a guy still sleeping on the floor after his ex left with their bed. Later, Alcide's sister Janice, a stylist, stops by to disguise Sookie for her infiltration of Lou Pine's. While she works, Sookie overhears in her thoughts that Debbie isn't just getting engaged to Coot - she's being inducted into his werewolf pack. When Alcide comes home, Sookie tells him the truth, and he agrees to go with her to Lou Pine's.

05 - Trouble

In the foyer of Russell's mansion, Tara sits petrified in a chair while Franklin and Talbot bicker with each other. When Bill walks in with Russell and Lorena, Tara rejoices for a moment - until she realises the vampire has no intention of rescuing her. Franklin joins Russell in his office, showing the vampire king the documents he stole from Bill's house and reporting that Sookie is actually in Jackson.

Eric arrives at Russell's mansion, supposedly searching for Bill as part of a vampire-blood-dealing investigation. But Bill immediately blows his cover...and points out that Eric is the one selling V for the queen. Intrigued, Russell says he may be able to help save Pam from the magister and invites Eric to stay, much to the delight of Talbot.

Sookie wakes up to the sound of Alcide fighting with Debbie in his apartment. The werewolf's ex warns him that Russell will kill him if he tells anyone what he saw at Lou Pine's, and when she notices Sookie, Debbie loses her temper and has to be dragged out by Alcide. Sookie wants to find out more about Russell, but Alcide says he needs to confer with his packmaster. But when they go to meet the alpha dog, Colonel Flood, he says he's well aware of Russell's crew but there's nothing that can be done. The vampire king is too powerful, and Flood is scared, though he'll never admit it.

Jason shows up for his first day on the job at the sheriff's office, and Andy puts him to work...washing police cruisers. When he sees Crystal drive by in an old truck, he jumps into a cop car - shirtless - and pulls her over. He asks her to meet him at Merlotte's that night, and when she refuses, he tells her he'll be there anyway.

Sam helps the Mickenses move into his rental property, while Tommy and Joe Lee glare at each other over the tops of cardboard boxes. Across the way, Terry is moving in with Arlene, and he couldn't be happier. Sam suggests Joe Lee help Arlene out as a handyman, and then he jumps in his truck with Tommy to go to work.

At Russell's mansion, Tara is tied to a bed next to a sleeping Franklin. Using her teeth to loosen the ropes, she manages to escape. She bolts out the door and into the sunlight, but as she gets farther from the house, she hears a wolf growling as it gives chase. Moments later, she's taken to the ground by a grinning, naked Coot. Later that night, Franklin is hurt and enraged that she tried to leave him, but he softens when she explains that she's human and has certain needs...like food. Unfortunately, he suggests a solution to this problem: turning her into his "vampire bride."

06 - I Got a Right to Sing the Blues

Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton are dragged back to Russell's mansion by the king's goons. Bill tries to escape by staking one of the guards - and taking a shot at Russell - but the older vampire is much too powerful for him. Russell demands that Bill be locked up in the slave quarters and then orders Lorena to kill him. Aghast, Sookie begs Eric to tell her what's going on, but the Nordic vampire tells her to keep her mouth shut. He cares nothing for her, he says, and warns her to stay out of his way.

Russell joins Sookie in his office and puts on a façade of pleasantness as he asks her what she is exactly - because she's certainly not human. Sookie wants some answers of her own (and Russell is playful enough to indulge her), but when she finds out that Russell is the king of Mississippi and that there's also a queen out there somewhere, the information only confuses her more. Russell quickly tires of playing games, and when Sookie dodges his question about having other powers, he loses his temper, screaming in German and commanding her to answer.

The crew at Merlotte's is ready to close up when a lone customer named Peach walks in and wants to eat. Lafayette leaves Jesus at the pool table and heads into the kitchen to cook her meal, but when Arlene confides in Jessica that all her customers stiffed her (because the vampire glamoured them as they arrived), Jessica takes pity and glamours Peach as well. Not only does Merlotte's last customer of the night leave Arlene a massive tip, but she also allows Jessica to feed on her in the ladies room.

Outside in the woods, Jason and Crystal make out passionately, not sure where the intensity is coming from. But Crystal breaks away from him, upset, and says that they can never be together. "Just forget me," she tells him before running off, "for both our sakes." Later, he finds out why she was so cagey when she shows up at her house with flowers, only to find out that Felton is her fiancé.

Jesus sits with Lafayette in his car, and they talk, opening up to each other. When Jesus reveals to Lafayette that he doesn't know his father because his mother was raped, the cook/dealer softens. Nervous, but genuinely connecting, the men lean in for a kiss.

In the slave quarters at Russell's mansion, Lorena has Bill chained to the floor and tortures him with silver blades. As she carves a deep incision into his chest, Bill tells her that he refuses to become what she is - a heartless monster. He knows that Lorena's maker stamped out her humanity by forcing her to do unspeakable things &hellip; and Bill says he wishes he could have met her before that happened.

Tara, tied to Franklin's bed, puts aside her terror and tries to earn his trust, kissing him and begging to drink his blood. Franklin is turned on, and when Tara asks him to untie her, he obliges. Tara bites into his neck, drinking deeply. Later, when she realises Sookie is being held in a nearby room, Tara sends a mental message to her friend, telling her to be ready for an escape attempt.

Downstairs, Eric plays cards with Talbot, doing his best to charm Russell's partner until the man of the house himself asks Eric to go for a drive with him. In the car, Russell explains how he uses werewolves to do his bidding and tells Eric that he plans to employ their help in sublimating the human race entirely

Jesus takes in the décor in Lafayette's living room, telling his date that he takes the religious symbols seriously. As their conversation starts to get more intimate, they hear a crash outside, where Felton and his crew are smashing Lafayette's car. Lafayette and Jesus fight them off, but the savage beating Lafayette gives Felton - along with the revelation that Lafayette is a V dealer - drives Jesus away in disgust.

Eric's assumption that Russell is taking him to Shreveport to deal with the magister turns out to be incorrect. Instead, the king drives to Sophie's estate, where they kill some of her guards and corner the queen. She tries to fight her way past Eric, but he's older and more powerful and has decided he no longer needs to defer to her. Russell proposes marriage to Sophie - and more importantly offers to pay her debts - and she begrudgingly accepts. Not that the vampires are willing to take her at her word; before going to ground, Eric makes sure Sophie is "properly restrained."

Lorena stays up past sunrise to continue her work slicing into Bill, whose blood pools increasingly beneath him. She's covered in blood herself, from Bill, from weeping, from the bleeds and when Coot and Debbie stumble in, they can barely handle the sight of all that V. Feeling generous, Lorena allows them to drink directly from Bill's wounds.

Tommy sits in front of the TV in his brother's trailer while Sam tries to get to the bottom of whatever's going on between him and Joe Lee. Tommy seems like he's about to talk when Melinda shows up at the door and asks to talk to her "youngest" alone. Once Sam's gone, Melinda's demeanor shifts and she scolds Tommy for disobeying his father. Sam doesn't care about any of them, she says, and there's no way he'll stick by the family once he finds out the truth about them.

Sam turns up at Merlotte's to find a depressed Lafayette, but when Tommy never shows up for work, he starts to get suspicious of the reasons behind Melinda's visit. Arlene mentions that she saw his parents leave the house with "some killer dog," and Sam immediately calls Andy, who tells Sam that there's some dog-fighting going on outside of town. Sam jumps in his truck and races off.

While Franklin sleeps at Russell's mansion, Tara sneaks out of bed, pulls a medieval weapon from the wall and bashes in the vampire's skull. She then runs to free Sookie, who insists on looking for Bill. As Tara sneaks across the grounds, she's terrified to run into a werewolf, but it turns out to be Alcide, who's come to help. Sookie manages to find Bill, drained to the point of death, but before she can take him to safety, Lorena leaps on Sookie and bites into her throat.

07 - Hitting the Ground

In the slave quarters of Russell's mansion, Lorena drinks deeply from the wound she's opened in Sookie's throat. Lorena is shocked at how delicious the blood tastes, but before she can savor it, a heavily drained Bill wraps his silver chains around her neck, giving Sookie the opening to stake his maker. She drives a piece of wood through Lorena's chest, turning the vampire into a wave of viscera that crashes down onto Bill.

Tara and Alcide burst into the room, warning Sookie that wolves will be on their trail any moment. Sookie refuses to leave without Bill, who's lost any sign of life. As they wrap him in a rug to block the sunlight, Debbie walks through the door, leveling a handgun on the group. After a brief struggle, Alcide manages to take the gun from her, but then Coot appears and rushes toward him. Alcide fires twice, hitting Coot in the chest and then the head. Everyone backs out of the room, leaving Debbie screaming in grief and rage over Coot's corpse, and they run to Alcide's work van and escape with more werewolves on their heels.

Hoyt sits in Jason's living room, listening as his friend explains that he's depressed over Crystal. Hoyt suggests Jason question the meth addict who's locked up down at the police station, and then their conversation is interrupted by Summer, who's come over to profess her feelings for Hoyt -- and ask him to sample her biscuits.

Sam drives up a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, looking for the dogfights that Andy told him about, but a shotgun-toting redneck turns him away. But once Sam drives out of view, he pulls off the road and shifts into a pit bull. Later, when a group of men see Sam wandering around as a loose dog, one of them loops a leash around his neck and leads him to the paddock where the rest of the animals are kept.

Sophie sits trapped in a silver cage at her mansion, while Eric calmly demands to know why she was so interested in Sookie. The queen refuses to talk, but Eric comes up with a creative source of motivation: He bites into the queen's human, Hadley, and threatens to drain her completely. The queen balks but remains silent‚ but then Hadley herself tells Eric what he wants to hear.

In the back of Alcide's van, Sookie tries to resuscitate Bill by pouring her own blood into his mouth. The attempt works far too well: Bill wakes up in an animal-like state and attacks Sookie. Tara and Alcide don't realise what's going on until it's too late. When Tara opens the back doors to check on her friend, Bill has returned to normal, but Sookie is drained and at the point of death. Enraged, Tara throws Bill into the sunlight before shouting at Alcide to drive to the hospital. Bill stands at the side of the road, staring at his hands, amazed that he's in the sunlight but not getting burned.

Before the man who captured Sam can put him in a cage, Sam shifts back into a human and knocks him out. He releases all the dogs from their cages and sets off an alarm, which quickly scatters the crowd betting on the fights. He finds Melinda and Joe Lee watching Tommy in the ring with a ferocious pit bull, and after Sam stares the other dog down, he turns on his parents. He orders Joe Lee to give his clothes to Tommy and then offers his brother a chance to leave these two behind forever. Tommy agrees and walks away with Sam.

In the dungeon of Fangtasia, the magister tortures Pam on a table until Russell and Eric arrive to put a stop to it. Russell explains that he's decided that the vampire "Authority" is obsolete, and he plans to sublimate humanity himself. He commands the magister to marry him to Sophie, and under the threat of death, the magister complies. But after the brief nuptials are complete, Russell kills the magister anyway, decapitating him.

Jason goes to the station to interrogate T-Dub, but the meth addict refuses to tell him anything about Crystal and her family unless Jason scores him a fix. Jason drives to Merlotte's and tries to get the meth from Lafayette -- who outright refuses -- but then he receives a call from Tara that Sookie is in the hospital.

Sookie has lost a lot of blood and fallen into a coma, and when the doctors try to give her a transfusion, her body rejects it‚ because she doesn't have a blood type. Jason arrives and urges his sleeping sister to hang on. Sookie is lost in a dream, however, where a mysterious woman named Claudine introduces her to a glen filled with dancing people who drink from a fountain of white light. Claudine urges Sookie to leave her world behind and join them, but before Sookie has time to decide, a darkness descends on everything. Claudine flees, telling Sookie, "Don't let him steal your light."

In the hospital room, Bill arrives and offers to give Sookie his blood to try to save her. Jason thinks for a moment, and despite Tara's objections, allows it. Bill inserts Sookie's IV tube directly into his vein, and as the blood enters her body, she wakes up, takes one look at Bill ... and screams.

08 - Night on the Sun

free to love each other without constantly putting one another in danger. Bill is crushed, but he knows she's right. With tears of blood streaming down his face, he leaves.

At Russell's mansion, Talbot is furious that the king's new wife, Sophie Anne, is

09 - Everything is Broken

After having had so much of Sookie's blood, Bill has a vivid dream about Claudine and her strange world. At first she runs from the vampire, but Bill convinces her that he's trying to protect Sookie. In order to do that, he tells Claudine, he must know what Sookie really is. With trepidation, Claudine tells him. Bill wakes up, and heads to Sookie's house to tell her.

At Fangtasia, Russell (holding the remains of Talbot in a bottle) watches from the roof as Nan returns to deliver the Authority's ruling on Eric. She tells the Nordic vampire that the official stance is that the investigation never happened. The Authority expects Eric to eliminate Russell - with no further support - and make sure that none of this ever comes to light.

Calvin bullies his way into Merlotte's, and when he finds Crystal there with Jason, he starts in on Sam, who loses his temper. Shattering a glass over Calvin's head, Sam beats him savagely, punching him in the face over and over until Jason and Hoyt have to pull him off. Jesus and Lafayette load Calvin into a truck to drive him to the hospital. Crystal jumps in with them, and when Jason tries to stop her, she balks and then rides away with her critically injured father.

In the parking lot of Merlotte's, Tara watches the truck drive off and is horrified when Franklin appears and grabs her. He's enraged that someone he "loved" would try to kill him, but Tara is finished playing his games. "If you're gonna f***kin' kill me, then kill me," she tells him. "What's taking you so long?" But before Franklin can go through with it, Jason arrives and blasts the vampire through the chest with a wooden bullet, reducing Franklin to a pool of blood.

Nan rides to the airport, watching the news in her limousine, when Russell appears onscreen and murders the anchor. Turning to the camera, he tells the American public that vampires are really like him, that they want to eat humans - and their children. He asks: "Why would we seek equal rights? You are not our equals."

10 - I Smell a Rat

Outside of Merlotte's, Arlene comes clean to Terry, telling him that the baby is Rene's and that it will grow to be evil. She's afraid he'll bail, but Terry embraces her and tells her that he'll raise the child as his own, surrounding it with as much love as he possibly can. Nevertheless, Arlene later approaches Holly the Wiccan waitress about ways to end her pregnancy.

Sookie dreams about Eric and realises that she knows deep down that she can't trust Bill. She goes to Fangtasia to talk with the vampire, who cryptically says goodbye and then kisses her passionately. He leaves her in the office to talk with Pam, who beseeches him to find some way to use Sookie as bait to defeat Russell.

The vampire king works out his final stages of grief over Talbot by paying a male hooker who looks much like his deceased partner. Russell tells "Talbot" how much he loves him and that he's so sorry he wasn't with him when he died. As the hooker gets more and more freaked out, Russell begins to weep and then stakes the man through his chest.

Hoyt comes into Merlotte's and tells Jessica that he loves her for exactly what she is - and that he's broken up with Summer to be with her. Tommy looks on from across the bar as Hoyt waits for an answer. But a conflicted Jessica stays silent for a bit too long and Hoyt storms out. When Tommy gets in his face in the parking lot, Hoyt throws a single punch and drops him without slowing down. Tommy then shifts into a pit bull and mauls Hoyt, whose screams attract Jessica. She throws the dog far into the woods, and tells Hoyt, "I love you too - now drink my blood."

Bill wakes up to find that Sookie has left and yells at Jason for failing to keep her safe. Fed up with letting everyone down, Jason shoots back that no one can stop Sookie from doing anything and rescinds his invitation, forcing the vampire to leave. Jason then hears a noise in the bedroom, and when he investigates, finds a black panther sitting on his floor...until it shifts into Crystal.

At Fangtasia, Eric rejoins Sookie in his office. She yells at him for locking the door and tells him that she's not some kind of prisoner. "That's exactly what you are," he says as he scoops her up and takes her to the basement to be thrown in chains.

11 - Fresh Blood

Bill bursts through the door at Fangtasia to rescue Sookie, and when Pam stands in his way, he informs the younger vampire that he could easily kill her. When Bill attacks, however, Pam sprays him in the face with colloidal silver, blinding him. But downstairs in the basement, spurned Yvetta - still smarting from Eric's scorn - frees Sookie and then helps Bill to overtake Pam.

After Jesus and Lafayette come down from their V trip, Jesus is blown away by the experience and wants to do it again immediately. Lafayette isn't as enthused, and a few "aftershock" hallucinations disturb him so much that he asks Jesus to leave for the night. Later, his delusions come on even stronger when the religious figurines at his house start chattering and talking to him.

Jason, standing shocked in his bedroom, tries to process the news that his girlfriend is a were-panther. He wants to accept her, but everything is just too weird right now. He leaves to look for Sookie, but he ends up at the Bon Temps football field, watching Kitch Maynard practice. But something's not right - the kid is just too good. When it dawns on Jason that Kitch is using V as a performance enhancer, he approaches the young QB as a "police officer" and tries to intimidate him. But Kitch doesn't care, and even worse, he knows no one else will either. Jason goes home to Crystal and says that he wants to be with her - after all, no one in Bon Temps is what they're supposed to be. She's overjoyed, but she tells Jason that they need to find a way to protect the people of Hotshot from a DEA raid.

Hoyt, a little buzzed from drinking Jessica's blood, makes out with her and tells her that he doesn't care that she's killed people. He says if she needs to have human blood, she can drink his...and she does. Meanwhile, Summer shows up at his mother's house, apologizing that she couldn't win over Maxine's son.

Eric tracks Russell down at a museum, where he's killed the guards in order to enjoy one of Talbot's favorite pieces of art. Russell cordially informs Eric that he's going to destroy him, and when Eric explains the reason for his revenge, the mad king simply laughs and says: "Life is absurd." Eric then plays his last card, explaining that he's found the key to walking in sunlight - and he can share it if he continues to live.

Bill and Sookie drive back to Bon Temps, discussing the limited chances of both their relationship and their survival. The discussion ends abruptly, however, when Russell literally stops their car with his hands. Bill and Sookie are dragged back to Fangtasia, but on the way in, Eric intimates to Bill that he has a plan to save Sookie.

In the forest, Holly performs a nature ritual on Arlene inside a ring of candles. As Arlene drinks a strange potion (including a drop of her own blood) Holly explains that if the soul is meant to be born, nothing can change that...but this could be the answer. Later that night, Arlene wakes up covered in blood. As Terry freaks out, she holds him and says she's lost the baby, but when the couple goes to the hospital to follow up, the doctor tells them that Rene's child is still "on board."

Inside Merlotte's, Tara and Sam sit at the bar drinking and talking about how they're not so different after all. Tara does warn Sam, though, that speaking your mind isn't always the best way to make friends. They lean into a kiss, and as it intensifies, they head back to Sam's trailer. While they're in bed, Tommy breaks into the bar to crack Sam's safe.

At Fangtasia, Russell is ecstatic about his moment in the sun, but he insists that Eric go first. Both vampires drink deeply from Sookie, and when Eric steps out into the parking lot, he's unburned by the morning light. Russell observes from a security monitor in the bar, and after a few minutes joins Eric outside. In a flash, the Nordic vampire, who's begun to char slowly under the sun's rays, slaps silver handcuffs over Russell's wrist and then his own. "Be brave," he tells Russell. "We'll die together."

12 - Evil Is Going On

Eric and Russell smolder in the sunlight outside of Fangtasia, and as Eric finally receives his revenge, the apparition of Godric appears and tells Eric to forgive Russell...Not likely to happen. Still, Russell and Eric both receive a stay of execution when Sookie - healed by Bill's blood - bursts out into the sunlight to rescue them. She allows Eric to drink from her and heal his wounds, but a badly charred Russell is chained to the stripper pole with silver as Sookie stands guard through the day.

Sam and Tara wake up in his trailer, and as he cooks her breakfast, he teases that his is the only time she's stuck around till morning. When he tells her that he's a shifter, she's immediately freaked out, but Sam refuses to hide what he is any longer. Overcome by everything she's been through, Tara wishes she could just "reboot," and Sam tells her it's possible - as long as she keeps moving. Later at night, Tara does just that, driving away from Bon Temps.

Hoyt shows up to work and finds his mother, Summer and his old high school guidance counselor waiting for him. They try to stage an intervention to protect him from Jessica, but Hoyt is having none of it. He tells them that he loves Jessica and that they'll just have to deal with it. Later that night, he takes his girlfriend to an apartment he's rented and tells her that he wants to marry her - even if he has to become ordained as minister and do it himself. Maxine, enraged and aggrieved, buys a gun...

Jason rushes into the sheriff's office as the DEA mounts up for a raid on Hotshot. Andy tries to talk him out of tipping off the dealers, but Jason and Crystal rush over and tell Calvin that the police are on their way. As Calvin orders everyone to destroy the vampire blood and hide the meth supplies, Felton shows up, strung out on V, and shoots his father to get to the drug. Felton forces Crystal into his truck, and she begs Jason to take care of the people in Hotshot, who can't look after themselves. Jason swears that he'll find her, and as Felton drives off, he turns to the people he's been charged with protecting.

Lafayette continues to hallucinate, becoming more and more afraid that he's going crazy like his mother. He calls Jesus for help, and when the nurse arrives at Merlotte's, he tells Lafayette that everything's going to be fine - he's just become more sensitive to magic. And when Jesus explains that he's a witch himself, Lafayette is worried enough that he's actually comforted by the news.

As the other vampires sleep through the day, Russell tries to convince Sookie to set him free, offering everything from money to murder. Sookie doesn't take the bait, though, and when she realizes that he's been hoping to use her blood to resurrect Talbot, she dumps the bottle of vampire remains down the bar sink. As the other vampires awaken, Alcide arrives at Fangtasia - Eric has promised to clear his father's debts if Alcide will let them bury Russell at one of his worksites.

Bill and Eric pour wet cement over the immobilized vampire king, and Eric explains that he couldn't risk killing Russell and allowing him to find peace in the afterlife. Godric appears again to try to convince Eric otherwise, but the Nordic vampire orders him away. As Russell disappears, Bill slaps a pair of silver cuffs on Eric and pushes him into another pit, filling it in as he calls one of Eric's assassins to kill Pam.

Sam stops by his rental property and finds that Tommy has taken off - and left the place a mess with water running and the fridge door hanging open. When he sees the place, Sam races back to Merlotte's and finds that Tommy has also looted his safe. Grabbing a handgun from his office, Sam manages to track Tommy down in the woods. His brother is distraught at being abandoned, but he refuses to give the money back. As Tommy walks off into the darkness, Sam raises his gun and fires.

Bill knocks at Sookie's door to tell her what he's done to Eric in order to protect her, and he promises to kill every vampire who knows what she is. But they are interrupted when Eric - covered in cement - swoops onto the porch. He tells Sookie that Bill originally came to Bon Temps at the queen's order to "procure" Sookie, and that Bill even allowed the Rattrays to beat her almost to death in order to give her his blood. Bill is unable to deny any of it, and Sookie rescinds her invitation, forcing the vampire out of her home. Bill goes back to his house, where the queen arrives to take delivery of Sookie, but Bill turns on her, attacking the much older vampire.